The Ark
by Lysit
Summary: The arbiter stepped forward as the question hung in the air “And where, Oracle, is the Ark?”.
1. 1: Ashes of battle seldom settle

_Author: I decided to have a go at a Halo piece because, for the most part, a lot of halo fan fiction is badly written, I figure I can't do worse at the least. Comments would be helpful:)_

The arbiter stepped forward as the question hung in the air "And where, Oracle, is the Ark?".

"Well that depends", a few seconds past, waiting for an explanation. "Depends on what, Oracle?". "Units of measurement and places of reference, taking this installation as the center and a standard unit the average distance between each installation that would place the ark roughly 4881.4 tera units to the relative galactic southwest, perpendicular to this installation". Stunned silence passed for a few seconds as this information sunk in. The sergeant, having lost track halfway in, and lacking an understanding of astrophysics of that commander and Arbiter, reacted first, "That, was not helpful".

"Chief, we have estimated it will be 15 minutes before that ship will be too far into Earth's atmosphere for us to shoot it down. Either it doesn't reach that point or you find someway to be elsewhere". The chief picked up his smg, released the magazine and checked the weapon before re-assembling it, finishing with cocking lever, the action clearing his mind "Understood". _Truth..._

Truth gripped the sides of his chair harder, _This was not the plan_. The Covenant attack was slowing, although the brutes had brute force to help in the field of battle, ship to ship combat required finesse. Reach had given the Covenant problems with just 20 Super Mac guns, over 300 was absurd. Truth's attempts to copy Regret's tactics had met failure, the brutes had simply charged the stations at full speed making themselves easy targets for Mac rounds and human strike craft. Truth would have to do something he'd gotten good at, Truth began to wait.

"I simply gave it in relative terms, unless you want to give me something I can use of reference you understand I cannot make it simpler". The sergeant, having understood less for hearing this, gave an inquiring look to the commander. Miranda thought for a moment, before turning to the arbiter, who had detached himself from the humans, "Star Charts, navigational data banks, do you have any access to them on your ships?" "Of course, elites currently occupy most of the ships left occupying this system, it would be relatively simple to.." "Thats a yes?" Johnson's stance shifted, he felt the need to move. "Yes, however I cannot leave yet, High Charity is nearly over run by the parasite, if control is completely lost" The arbiter shook his head "I dare not think what the parasite could do loose".

"Your highness, a hole has been made in the grid, we can start moving in more ground forces before they respond" "Laytrusk, prepare this ship to make for the breech, I am done with hiding".

Laytrusk quickly consulted some reports "It would not be safe.." "I think I can judge my safety best". Laytrusk flared with anger momentarily, from a prophet, that was a reprimand, and not a light one. "Make for the breech at 427, 647, 23, best speed. "Chief ten, the engines do not respond!"

"_Patrol 4, respond!" _The chief took a little time to loot the corpses of weapons, although he preferred UNSC weapons, smgs with no ammunition were a dead weight. Howls echoed at the end of the corridor. The Chief aware the lack of thrust had been noticed.


	2. 2: Refugees and Pathways

The master chief stood within a shadowy corridor, 3 decks below , what he believed to be, the command and control station. A couple dozen brutes escorting engineers had passed already, and more were on the way. The next group moved far more slowly however, sweeping the area as they went. A jackal shield glared from behind the group's chieften, John knew he could hide from the brutes, but the jackals had far sharper senses. _Hold position, risk detection or engage. _

Hefting the brute shot to his waist and side stepping out of cover in a single motion the chief fired. The first 4 shots hit the center of the formation, the jackals were not prepared, may didn't have there shields positioned in the right position, many more hadn't activated them. Survivors dived for cover, the brutes standing there ground, seeking the source of the shots. A brute on the right flank saw the chief, berserked and charged. The rest of the brutes reacted, ignoring the remaining jackals attempts to take up position in front of them.

Too late, the chief fired four times again, the berserking brute took the first shot in the neck, and somersaulted backwards into another brute, the second and third rebounded off the hastily formed jackal shield wall and exploded above the heads of the brutes at the rear causing two more to berserk. The last shot hit the chieften, throwing him into the side of the corridor.

The chief began to reload as the jackals prepared to open up, but were prevented when the berserking brutes smashed through there formation. The remaining brutes fired, however most shots went wide due to the inherent clumsiness of the brute shot, skill at arms, and attempting to fire past the berserkers. Shots exploded all around the chief as he finished reloading, his shields draining slightly. Firing, his first shot detonated in between the berserkers, one collapsed immediately, the second howled in anger and pain as it found itself no longer able to stand. The remaining shots hit the broken jackal wall, secondary explosions from worn plasma grenades blew the formation apart, and shrapnel from equipment and weapons tore apart those far enough away to survive the explosion. Discarding the spent brute shot the chief picked up a fallen carbine and finished off the crippled berserker. Making his way towards the lift. before any patrols the noise would attract could arrive, when something grasped his ankle.

Lights and noises emitted from the consoles aboard the _Zealous Hammer_, as several figures inspected the hollowgram. "Are you sure?" "Of course, before the last reclaimers left they seeded this system so that there ancestors may protect the Ark and use it again, should the situation arise". Earth looked so different to Miranda, untouched, _no, not just earth, the system it seemed peaceful, no war, no great dockyards._

An alarm on the communications station sounded "Incoming transmission, unknown encryption scheme". Miranda made her way to the console, and inserted a data chip into the terminal "Its UNSC D-Band". The elite tapped a few more controls before the loud speaker crackled into life. "This is Cortana, I am trapped inside _High Charity's_ systems, Gravemind is not allowin... Why am I receiving a link back from a Covenant vessel?" "Cortana, this is Miranda, we are aboard the _Zealous Hammer._" The commander thought for a second and added "Of our own free will".

This worried Cortana, however levels of stress within the commander's voice were quite low, for the time, she'd assume the commander was not being forced into this. "Gravemind is attempting to interrogated me, he is somehow probing my subroutines, its getting harder to lie" "Can you exit the system, there are a few elite teams left now heading towards the exits, they can retrieve you on a data crystal" "Negative, my presence, or lack there of, would be noticed, the only reason Gravemind hasn't taken _High Charity _away is because he is far more interested in me"

Cortana thought, there _was_ something she could do, she simply would rather not, mostly because it showed her what she would become. _But if I do nothing I'll never have chance to reach, and hopefully, avoid it._ "Commander I have an idea, I can copy myself into _High Charity's _navigational systems and keep Gravemind occupied with that for a while".

Miranda thought for a second "Do it, Arbiter can any of your elites get to a terminal on there way out?". The Arbiter clicked his mandibles and looked over at his communications officer who began operating his controls again. Turning back the Arbiter simply nodded. "Now what?" Johnson hated being in space almost as much as uncertainty. "Now human, we wait".

Gravemind did not like games, this "Cortana" seemed to do nothing but, it also infuriated him how she kept trying to hide, jumping from system to system. _She must realise I'll get her in the end_. Something pulsed in the communications, Gravemind listened carefully using the Covenant codes he had assimilated. "All ships fire at will". _That was not the plan, there must be something else I can use. _Gravemind extended his thoughts into the sensors, ignoring the waves of plasma and searched. _Ah..._ Light surrounded Gravemind as he disappeared.


	3. 3: Great Expanses of Space

_That Crazy Halo Girl: I have redone the paragraphs on chapter 2 (Althought FF doesn't seem to update instantly), in open office they appear a lot smaller than they do on fanfiction._

_Timthesoulmantaylor:"Your grammar and spelling is sketchy" Shouldn't that be "Are sketchy?", but yes I know they are, if they were as good as my ideas I'd be taking an English course and not Electronic at Uni, I will try and do as best as i can though_

The forerunner vessel shuddered as its engines re-engage. The master chief silently cursed inside his helmet. He wished Cortana was with him, she'd have intel, monitor communications, devised a _good_ plan. He looked down in time to see the defeated patrol's chieften pull his leg from under him, _Cortana might have have noticed that_.

"Your highness the engines are back online, however the breech has been closed, we will be clear in an estimated 28 cycles when ground forces disable-" "Laytrusk, what ships have we in the immediate vicinity?" "We have the _Wayward-_" "Allow me to rephrase, how many?" "27".

Truth allowed himself a tight smiled, _perfect_. "Laytrusk Order those ships to take up even formation around this vessel, even spread, they are to keep pace with us, make for planet side, we shall commence our search for the Ark" "My Lord, if I may, it is likely we may loose most of our escort, I am sure-" "Tell me Laytrusk, when were you gifted with the authority and knowledge to weigh the worth of a few ships against The Great Journey?"

"How much longer Arbiter?" "Not long, the city is almost burned _High Charity _will never leave this place". _High Charity _began to spin faster as its engines died trying to compensate, the stress of the rotation tore the city in half, the larger half plummeting towards star, the second burned by wave after wave, small shards spun off everywhere, destined to burn up in the Halo's atmosphere or get caught in the star's gravity well.

"Our work here is done". The Arbiter turned and walked into the center of the C&C room and begin searching through the navigational database. As he brought up Earth's system it was rapidly replaced by Cortana. "What are you planning?", Cortana's normally placid laced with annoyance. "I am planning to make my way to the Ark" "For what revenge against your prophets?" "They are no longer "our" prophets, and our revenge shall come from denying them there Great Journey" "And how do you plan not to get shot by everyone when you get there?".

The Arbiter smiled and turned to Miranda and said "That is the simple part" , motioning at the humans with his hand he continued "I have Ambassadors from Earth".

As the last few ships left the Delta halo a piece of debris slowed in its tumble, righted itself, and stopped. Gravemind called to his brethren to join him, for the first time in an age he had no time to wait. _In Amber Clad _began to turn, slowly at first, and made its way to the Delta Halo where pelicans and phantoms continued to gather. Gravemind turned his attention back to his new A.I, he felt for its presence and felt it expanding, no longer jumping, but replicating. _Virus_, Gravemind screamed, as the copied Cortanas spread throughout the ship, re-occupying were they had been purged. _As a virus you cannot dare to compete!_

The chief's carbine clatter on the deck next to him as he fell. The chieften must have seen his motion to the fallen weapon and threw the chief against the wall. John had barely enough time to rise back to his feet before the chieften charged the master chief with the bladed edge of his brute shot. Marginally side stepping the attack, he reached for the weapon and grabbed it. The chieften snared and turned into a better position to pull the weapon back. The spartan had been expecting this and fell backwards, tucking his legs as he did, dragging the chieften with him by the brute shot. When the brute was almost on top of him, the chief kicked out, propelling the brute over his head and into the deck hard. The chieften, however, kept its grip on the weapon.

"Master chief, are you there? Please respond, the unknown vessel is moving towards Earth, please respond". Before he could answer, the chieften started to rise, dragging John with it.

"Sir, still no response, shall I give the order?". Hood sighed and looked out on the incoming formation "Do it". As he watched mac stations turned to track, and Ackerson's cruiser formation moved to block and fire.

The chieften wrestled the grip of the brute shot away from the chief, turned, and leveled the rifle. The brute seemed to want to savor the moment. It gripped the rifle harder and began to squeeze with its finger, the same moment a mac round tore through the ship. Both the chief and the brute lost there footing. As they fell the chief grabbed for a bulkhead inlaid into the corridor wall, the brute grabbed for the rifle, which was slowing moving to the far side of corridor. As the brute neared the rifle the sound of tearing metal started and quickly elevated to deafening, as hole appeared were the rifle was sliding. The chief managed to hold on to the corridor as the gas quickly exited through the rupture, dragging the howling chieften with it. The chief hung there for a few seconds as last of the gas escaped and a shadow passed over him.


End file.
